


in the hiding place of my periphery

by zenithaurora



Series: Aang Week [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang Week 2021, Fluff, Gen, Minor Aang/Katara, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:54:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29600670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenithaurora/pseuds/zenithaurora
Summary: The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns, understanding that the mind can never truly be at peace if hatred and grief resided in the core of their spirits. The mind cannot experience true joy if it keeps falling back on past miseries; there is no peace without freedom, and there is no freedom without experiencing unadulterated joy in the simplicity of the air around them.Or how Aang sees the value of joy reflected on Bumi.
Relationships: Aang & Bumi II
Series: Aang Week [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2174718
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	in the hiding place of my periphery

The Air Nomads possessed a wide set of beliefs and customs.

They lived in harmony with the spirits, taking hours of their daily mornings to venerate them and pray to them. Even after Avatar Wan closed the spirit portal, they still held spirituality at a high esteem. They followed and lived by a small but concise group of rules and convictions: peace, equality, wisdom, patience, kindness, generosity, and compassion. Wisdom and inner peace will come to you through patience and meditation, and you should always strive to be kind, generous and compassionate to those around you, understanding they are no lesser or more than oneself. Despite how much grief and anger could overtake your body, do not allow it to cause harm to another living being, and forgive those who have wronged you, even when your fists shake with fury and your throat bobbles up and down with the words you want to shout.

Aang took all these lessons seriously, and made the effort every day to stick by those teachings, even in a world that considered those beliefs to be forgotten history. However, there was one value that he never struggled to upheld: fun.

Despite their solemn and calm appearance, one of the most important teachings that his culture had to offer was having fun. Although it could sound simplistic at first, Aang considered it the value that helped him the most during the war. The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns, understanding that the mind can never truly be at peace if hatred and grief resided in the core of their spirits. The mind cannot experience true joy if it keeps falling back on past miseries; there is no peace without freedom, and there is no freedom without experiencing unadulterated joy in the simplicity of the air around them.

He grasped on his values and held them tight against his chest, swearing that as long as he had them with him, they still existed. He sat on tree canopies and seaside cliffs, and soared the highest skies and traced the surface of the ocean and breathed. The war could take everything from him but not this.

He sees the value of joy reflected on his son.

He remembers whenever he went to Ba Sing Se and decided to go to Iroh’s tea shop, or when he and Katara visited the South Pole and spent some time with Hakoda. The two men had different advice to give him, different experiences to offer, but both shared the same warning: babies cry— a lot.

He had prepared himself for endless, sleepless nights, for piercing cries that would break his eardrums, bawling that would start for no apparent reason and would not present itself to have an easy solution. As the months passed fast, he prepared for all of this, a mixture of excitement, nervousness and trepidation settled on the pit of his stomach. However, when time came, things turned out to be different.

Bumi would rarely cry. He would get fuzzy when he was hungry or grumpy when he felt sleepy. He would laugh at everything and anything, a laugh that was so free and pure and would resonate through the walls and up to the sky. Overall, he was an easy baby, Hakoda had determined, although he would still look at his grandson’s antics with an amused expression and a barely contained smile.

However, with everything considered, Bumi still came with his own challenges.

“Please, just eat” Aang begged for his son to eat his food.

He would sit Bumi on the floor and trap him between his knees so he would not escape, and yet, the baby always managed to squirm his way out. Aang would swiftly lay the plate filled with pureed banana on the floor so he could chase after him, as he made his great escape chortling all the way. Absent-mindedly, he wondered how could a baby crawl so fast.

They have been doing this routine for almost half an hour now.

Bumi attempted to stand up on his wobbly knees and grabbed a part of the chair for balance. Aang took advantage of his distraction and swooped him off the floor. He walked to the corner close to where he has left the plate, sat against the wall, and placed the baby on his lap.

“Okay,” he began and held him by his shoulders, “you’re going to finish your plate, and then you can play” he promised, keeping a solemn face.

Bumi stared at him for a couple of seconds and then exploded in a fit of buoyant giggles. Even in his exasperation and exhaustion, he had to admit that his laugh was contagious, and could not keep a straight face for long. Aang smirked and tickled his protruding belly, turning the giggles into a shrilling laughter. He could not help but to join him.

Sometimes he could see it, in his toothless smile and the joyous sound coming out of his mouth, in the mischievous glint that flashed through his eyes and his playful nature. Aang knew he was not an airbender; they had known it practically since the day he was born. However, there was always something in his guileless actions or the way his eyes would look with wonder at everything around him that reminded him of his people. It was a strange sensation to say the least, knowing him as this relatively new life but also feeling like he was staring at an old friend; someone that belonged to the past as much as the future and was his present.

“How’s everything going?” the voice disrupted him from his thoughts.

He turned his head and smiled at the sight of his wife.

“Our son will starve” he pouted. It was meant to be a joke but he was genuinely worried about the difficulty of feeding him.

Katara snorted. “Don’t be so dramatic”.

She wanted to say more, but she shut her mouth and wordlessly pointed at Bumi. Aang twisted his head to stare at his son and froze; he could not believe the sight before in front of him. Bumi was completely still, with no intention of crawling away from his lap.

_Now or never._

Without averting his eyes from him, he slid his hand across his lap and down to the floor, making sure that Bumi would not notice a thing. The air around them was stagnant, and they held their breath, scared that even the most minor movement would give away his intentions. His fingers found the small spoon, sunk it in the pureed banana, and began to slowly drag it to his lap. He waited until Bumi had his mouth opened and lunged the small spoon inside. After a few seconds, he swallowed his food.

Aang raised his hands in a triumphant cry. “Yes! I did it!”

Katara quirked an eyebrow. “Congratulations, at this rate he may finish his plate by the end of the month” she quipped.

He shrugged. “I’ll take any small victory I can take”.

As if to spoil his father’s accomplishment, Bumi took advantage of their distraction and got out of his lap. He went directly to the plate and smudged the contents all over the floor.

“No” Aang whined when he took notice.

Katara guffawed and left the room, her laugh resounding against the stone walls of their home.

“Food it’s meant for eating; not playing”, Aang gave his most pathetic attempt at a scolding but could not resist the joy radiating from Bumi, who laughed even harder when he clapped his tiny hands and bits of food went flying, sticking to the walls.

Aang tried to keep it together with no avail. Then he sighed and joined in his laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> Title based on 'Joy' by Sleeping At Last.


End file.
